This blog is about my exposure to the Spanish language and various Latin-American cultures through travel and research; particularly Black Latino (Afro-Latino) cultures.

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Sunday, January 4, 2015

For Blacks in Cuba, the Revolution Hasn’t Begun

On my résumé, I proudly list my University of Havana's Spanish-language intensive training. Employers have asked, why Cuba to study Spanish (i.e. versus other Spanish-speaking countries). I explained to them that I am a salsa dancer, and Cuba is where salsa music has its roots. Upon my arrival in Cuba, I felt so much at home with its large black population and its abundance of salsa and Afro-Cuban music that I immediately set out to make successful connections with members of the Afro-Cuban community.

Unlike other Latin-American countries I've visited, it was a good feeling to see blacks working in shops, hotels, at the airport, in public transportation, as police officers, and not to mention as engineers and doctors. It was a pleasure to see black faces on the campus of the University of Havana.I have to give Fidel Castro credit for being the only Latin American leader to openly address racism in his country versus sweeping it under the rug and pretending that it doesn't exist. Castro, instead, articulated a vision for the elimination of institutional racism
and attempted to dismantle it. He admitted, however, this was not as
successful as he'd hoped.

Fidel also sent troops to support several
wars of liberation in Africa. He arranged free training of medical doctors from the African continent through Cuba's Latin American School of Medicine and, in recent years,
extended scholarships to the school through the Congressional Black
Caucus to U.S. students from under served communities.However, I was not on the island of Cuba long enough to witness or even experience the hidden racism
in Cuban society. Even many of the black Cubans gave me the impression
that racism had come to an end in Cuba. However, Roberto Zurbano, an Afro-Cuban writer and reporter, wrote the following article in the New York Times...

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Bill Smith Jr

billsmih510@gmail.com — Bill is a certified professional résumé writer born in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, and raised in New York City, the USA near Spanish Harlem where he began teaching himself Spanish at age 10. His late Mexican-American friend, Yolanda Guttierrez, strongly encouraged Bill to learn the culture if he is going to speak the language. Bill took her advice to heart by exploring black cultures in Latin America through research and travel, thus his blog, African American-Latino World.